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Carrolade

@Carrolade@lemmy.world

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Carrolade ,

Very well summarized, I think this hits the majority of the most relevant points.

Carrolade ,

Funniest comment I've read in a pretty long time, props.

Carrolade ,

makes community about video game arguments.

then makes community about not arguing with me.

Carrolade ,

Ah, LinkedIn, exactly where I want to get nuanced answers to weird questions from.

Carrolade ,

Very weak article, giving him credit as a free speech absolutist. Is he really, or does he ban people that attack him? Alludes to us having self-driving due to his innovations. Really? Other automakers seem neck and neck with him, with Mercedes having passed a major milestone before him, quite recently.

Does he really have hyperloops to dream up and Mars colonies to plan, or is that just marketing drivel to appeal to certain types?

This is almost fanboying in disguise. If you simply read it through the lens of being pro-racism, it's suddenly a praise piece.

edit: Oh, and it doesn't even try to answer the question it asks in its own headline.

Carrolade ,

I'm willing to give him credit where credit is due. I am not willing to simply give him the benefit of any doubts though.

He does deserve credit for speeding innovation in the electric vehicle arena, no question. Battery technology was also pushed forward by this. You cannot say it wasn't inevitable simply because entrenched interests were resisting though. This implies that A: big companies cannot change, and B: no other individuals were ever going to make a play with a new company. This is giving him the benefit of doubt. This positive is also colored by the fact that electric vehicles are a good and important step, but not really a solution to anything. You have to be careful that your electricity generation is clean, otherwise you simply move emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant.

Similarly, I do give him credit for spurring advances in re-useable rocketry. A Mars base, however, is a pretty terrible idea that is still many decades away from even the planning phase. A Moonbase or an orbital base, now that's a better idea. I would go into why, but many, many people have already done this, and it's a long, science-filled discussion.

These things granted, they do not exist in a vacuum. I also weigh them against any negatives Musk creates for the world. His gigafactory in Shanghai, his purchasing of twitter, his support for strongmen, pushing pro-Russian narratives etc.

When this weighing is done with as much neutrality and objectivity as I can, personally I find him wanting. On top of this, having formerly been a very big fan of his, this strikes as a betrayal. He used to be a positive impact on the world, but in the final balance, is no longer. I don't quite hate him, but I am certainly no fan any more.

If you want to see things accurately, try to avoid bias both for, and against. Nobody actually deserves benefit of doubt. Make sure you understand the arguments both sides put forward. Then you can weigh. While we can never be perfectly objective and know all the factors, this will at least get a person closer to actual fairness.

When I personally do all this, I arrive at Elon simply being a major corporation, no different from the rest of them. Mainly resting on a bed of marketing bullshit. I treat him as such.

Carrolade ,

I mainly see space exploration as an end itself as opposed to being "for" anything. It's not so much a place to live and colonize, but something to further explore. No matter how bad the Earth gets, it's going to be nicer than any of the other solar bodies, which are already pretty terrible for human habitation in pretty much every way.

Main advantage of a moonbase or orbital base would be cost and accessibility. It's a lot easier to launch from the moon, if we did some of our construction and industry there. A lot of which could be automated eventually, you wouldn't need a whole population there. More an outpost than a colony.

I'm sure colonies would appear eventually, but not in our lifetimes. But simply trying to put anything substantial up there would drive further advancements in the field.

Carrolade ,

I largely agree, current LLMs add no capabilities to humanity that it did not already possess. The point of the regulation is to encourage a certain degree of caution in future development though.

Personally I do think it's a little overly broad. Google search can aid in a cyber security attack. The kill switch idea is also a little silly, and largely a waste of time dreamed up by watching too many Terminator and Matrix movies. While we eventually might reach a point where that becomes a prudent idea, we're still quite far away.

Carrolade ,

I think the term ethnic cleansing is underused. It's a strong term with a clear, unambiguous meaning that people can still stand against. It does not run afoul of the fact that when many people hear "genocide", they don't think of formal definitions, they think of WW2, trains and gas chambers, and attempts at thorough extermination at a large scale.

Ethnic cleansing, on the other hand, begs simple questions, like, what is the ethnicity being cleansed from? Simple answer: their land. How are they being cleansed? Killed, driven away or assimilated into another culture. What, exactly, is being cleansed? That group of distinct people right there, their name is whatever.

It's clear, concise, and very hard to argue with from any sort of semantic position.

Carrolade ,

... I hate how accurate this is. Very impressive.

Carrolade ,

tbf, salad can come in many forms, and is often served in a bowl. Wrap is a bit of a grey area, but a salad in a wrap is a thing.

Carrolade ,

...egg salad?

Carrolade ,

Exactly. Marketing generally doesn't try to speak to your rational forebrain. It's going for your subconscious, by design. It's why ads can be so random and still retain efficacy.

'Vortex Cannon vs Drone' - Mark Rober shows off tech from a "defense technology company that specializes in advanced autonomous systems". That seems bad

I've enjoyed Mark Rober's videos for a while now. They are fun, touch on accessible topics, and have decent production value. But this recent video isn't sitting right with me...

Carrolade ,

Been tried quite a bit now in the Russo-Ukrainian theater. Not as easy as it sounds.

Carrolade ,

I don't know about everyone else, but I had a great interest in war when I was a boy. Now as an adult, I'd rather have Mark explaining things to kids than anyone else they might seek out.

Carrolade ,

If it's military tech, then the finer details are likely not part of the public domain. Anything that could be used to understand or develop a way to counteract the weapon more effectively, or sometimes even just understand its precise capabilities, would be secret.

It's understandable that it does not sit well, I think that's healthy. War is hell.

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    Carrolade ,

    tbf, before Oct 7th, things were a lot easier.

    Court Bans Use of 'AI-Enhanced' Video Evidence Because That's Not How AI Works (gizmodo.com)

    A judge in Washington state has blocked video evidence that’s been “AI-enhanced” from being submitted in a triple murder trial. And that’s a good thing, given the fact that too many people seem to think applying an AI filter can give them access to secret visual data.

    Carrolade ,

    But I thought AI was just magic, and could do anything...

    Carrolade ,

    No, it's "shunning" when they do it. It's "cancel culture" when other people do it.

    Proper manipulation of language is key to fighting a culture war.

    Carrolade ,

    Agreed. It's a notable correlation, but there's a lot more that goes into it.

    Carrolade ,

    ...we should put more junior-high science posters above urinals.

    Carrolade ,

    Likely close to 100%. If you read the (rather good) article, a little further down they test whether the LLM can play an extremely simplistic "Connect 4" game they devise, as a way of narrowing down on specifically reasoning capabilities.

    It cannot.

    Chess puzzles, in particular, are frequently shared and discussed in online chess spaces, so the LLM will have a significant amount of material to work with when it tries to predict the best response to give to the prompt.

    Carrolade ,

    An enclosed space can also get hotter than the "burning temperature" of whatever fuel you are using to heat it up. Because heat keeps accumulating if it has nowhere to escape to.

    Carrolade ,

    It's not really a new problem, people were doing it with their imaginations and stories long before AI came around. The tools of the digital age simply amplified the effect. Healthy skepticism is still the solution, that hasn't changed.

    It'll never actually go away, though. Of all the possibile ways of looking at any given situation, the vast majority will always be inaccurate. Fiction simply outnumbers nonfiction. Wrong answers outnumber correct answers.

    So, the adjustment has to be inside of us, and again, it's always been necessary. This isn't fundamentally new.

    Carrolade ,

    Probably just because some people really like Stalin, and have become convinced his accounts are the truthful ones and everyone else lies about him.

    Carrolade ,

    We’re about to live in a world where nobody can tell truth from fiction.

    I would argue that our long history of devising myths indicates we have always lived so.

    Carrolade ,

    I would disagree. I think if we go back even a few centuries, we find that virtually nobody had a firm grasp on historical fact, due to the printing press not being invented yet, alongside archeological techniques not existing.

    Carrolade ,

    Certainly, but before widespread literacy, did a large portion of the populace have interest in and access to them? Particularly an accurate understanding of how their own culture fit into the broader scope of human history?

    Carrolade ,

    Which is why they claimed their city was founded by a couple brothers of divine origin, right? And calling Plinys Naturalis Historia respected by modern historiography is laughable, I'm sorry. Naturally it wasn't his fault, he was mainly compiling other primary sources of his time, but it is in no way something that should be simply taken at face value.

    Regardless, my broader point was never to try to say that history began with the printing press or something. Clearly, if it were not for older records in everything from the knotwork language of ancient Peru to newly readable scrolls recovered from the Vesuvius eruption, we wouldn't have any clue what happened previous to the 15th century, now would we? Which, clearly we do.

    Instead, I was making a point about the nature of information accuracy, and the importance of skepticism in approaching information. In the same way I wouldn't want to read Pliny and assume it's contents were 100% accurate, I also wouldn't want to just believe everything I see online. It's not new to have reason to doubt our information space, and thus the effects of AI misinformation are overblown imo. Appropriate skepticism and critical thinking skills are still a viable solution.

    Lastly, please explain how this:

    So I would say they did certainly have a significant understanding of how their culture fit into the broader scope of human history.

    follows from this:

    One of the papers I wrote for a class about the importance of comparing primary sources featured 3 different accounts of what Athens was like and the views people there held at a certain point in history from 3 different people of varying social and financial status, and there was absolutely awareness of that sort of dissonance between what their government claimed and what the reality was even among the more common folk.

    I fail to see how three people disagreeing about Athenian history means they understood how Athenian history fit into global history.

    Carrolade ,

    Fuck, how widespread is this? It was one thing when they were all faceless, malevolent, digital actors. But how much of the time is it someone trapped into slavery?

    If I argue with a Chinese troll, am I actually arguing with some Uygher in a detention camp somewhere?

    Carrolade ,

    But China never wants to hurt anyone, I read it on the internet. So, if they collect our data, it must be to help us be better people, because that's all China wants. Everyone to be happy, with sunshine and rainbows all day long. I bet they'll make unicorns too, and we can all be happy together.

    I have unearthed Google Gemini's utopian vision for our future

    The main risk currently is LLMs being incorporated within biological robots. Therefore all creators of LLMs need to have regulation under a treaty that states they will not permit use of their LLM within a biological robot and will take active measures to include in the source code a shutdown mechanism should it detect...

    Carrolade ,

    So, an LLM would have to eat and shit without actually knowing what food and shit actually are. Hmm, yes, very concerning.

    Protip: How things sound and how they work are not always the same. A fucking parrot can talk if you train it well. This does not make it a threat to humanity.

    Petah explain the joke (lemmy.today)

    A community where you can get your jokes, memes, reference etc explained by the one and only petah. I intially created this because i was not getting a lot of things and wabted a community for things like that on lemmy like on reddit but everyone should join because it will only work then.

    Carrolade ,

    Making a community and expecting everyone else to do the work for you isn't how these things usually work, after the first few months of the service anyway. You gotta have the people that want to make the content first, which usually means you need to do the initial posting yourself to get the ball rolling.

    This is why we get so many created communities with a handful of subscribers and no posts. It's not the idea that makes a community, it's the posters. The content creators.

    Internet communities generally need to be led from the front, not from the rear. It'd be like starting a new business but not wanting to do any of the tasks yourself.

    Carrolade ,

    That'd work I suppose.

    Carrolade ,

    I think its useful to remember that it's simply logical to acknowledge that exaggeration and drama can draw more attention and engagement than more mature, nuanced, frequently longer-winded participation can. Particularly younger people are not going to be as interested in observing social mores when simply being more bombastic can seem to be more fun sometimes.

    It's mainly on us, in the userbase, to deal with these kinds of trollier styles of interaction in an appropriate way. Usually not feeding them is enough, though not always. Sometimes they need to be cleverly undermined or brusquely and efficiently slapped down, it just depends on the troll.

    But either way, it is true that they will always be here, and so we do need to adapt ourselves around them in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, combatting trolling does not actually have any one-size-fits-all solution, and requires a diverse toolbox of approaches, from mods and admins through to users.

    That said, positivity and gratitude has its place too, even if some find it distasteful. I think it does make a notable difference. Morale is not some immutable thing that can resist everything both real life and internet hobbies can throw at it, and showing appreciation is part of how societies maintain it more broadly. We are not robots, nor will we be any time soon. We are subject to morale, and it is helpful to maintain it in positive ways. It's not combatting the bad thing, it's buffing the good thing. Both can be necessary sometimes, and there's nothing wrong with a person preferring one or the other. People do not all have to be the same, after all.

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